The cranes have now all been ringed, we have the all-clear from the blood tests, the Somerset pen is all up and ready, and the birds are good to be transported down to Somerset first thing tomorrow morning.

The 2013, and penultimate year of egg collection has now been completed, with the last 14 eggs arriving back at the Great Crane Project rearing facility at Slimbridge in the early hours of Sat 11th May. Hatching is now happening thick and fast with over 1/3 of the eggs having now turned into hungry little chicks. We expect that the hatching period will be over by around 22nd May. Amy, Harry, Claire and Tan will now be very busy! Keep your eye on the GCP facebook pages for lots of cute chick photos! And h

The last couple of months have been a fascinating time and we have been seeing the cranes start to form pair-bonds with lots of display, agression and interesting allegiances forming. The chart above has all the 2010 and 2011 males in the first column and then the females that are most closely bonded to them in the second column. The most definite and obvious pairs we have so far are: